In U.S. history, education has been promoted as a
remedy for many types of social issues and problems. In the early
republic, reformers and educators such as Susanna Rowson advocated
higher education as a way to enable women to manage their sexual
vulnerability—that is, to make rational choices about who to marry and
about how to be virtuous women (and wives). The documents in this
section explore this issue by highlighting the problems women faced and
detailing the education offered at Rowson’s Young Ladies' Academy in
- To explore how reformers such as Mary
Wollstonecraft and Judith Sargent Murray critiqued women’s lot in
the early republic
- To understand why concerns about women’s
sexual vulnerability increased in the early republic and to
determine why education was viewed as a (partial) solution
- To consider the experience of young women at
Susanna Rowson's academy—the content of their education and the
choices it created for them
Read documents 1, 8, and 9. Documents 1 and 8
were written by Philadelphia stateman and physician
Benjamin Rush, a proponent of expanded education for both men and women
in the new nation. How did Rush place his call for expanded education
into the context of revolutionary America; that is, why did he think
better education was especially necessary in the new nation? In
what specific ways did Rush and Benjamin Say, a trustee at the Young
Ladies' Academy in Philadelphia, see women's education as an important
component of this project (document 9)?
Read documents 3, 4, and 10. In these
documents, reformers Judith Sargent Murray and Mary
Wollstonecraft both argue that women are creatures of social
conditioning. What does this mean? How do they make this argument, and
what do they say about women’s irrationality? How do you think their
readers responded? Be prepared to discuss this in class and to point to
specific passages in these documents that support Murray's and
Carefully examine documents
and 7. What examples
of women’s sexual vulnerability appear in
these documents? What difference do you think it makes (if any) that the
first document is fiction and the other two are nonfiction? Be prepared
to discuss this in class.
Read documents 12A-C, 14, 15, and 17A and 17B, all
excerpts from textbooks used at Susanna
Rowson’s Young Ladies Academy. What examples do you find of practical
education? Ornamental education? Academic education? How do they
overlap, in both the texts and in Rowson’s vision of the education she
was providing? Be prepared to discuss this in class.
Carefully read documents 18A-C,
all public speeches given by
girls attending academies in the early republic. What vision of women’s
education appears in these speeches, and in what ways has academy
education benefited the girls? Additionally, read document 19. What does
this add to the picture? Finally, be prepared to discuss both the limits
of education and possibilities education created for women as revealed
by these excerpts.
Short (Creative) Assignments
• Documents 18A-C are all addresses given at commencements of the Young Ladies Academy. Based on what you learned from these documents, imagine that you have just completed your education at Susanna Rowson’s academy and write your own commencement speech.
• In document 16, you see an advertisement for Susanna Rowson’s academy. Design another advertisement that might have been used for her school. Feel free to include images, but make sure to also include text that describes the academy experience.
One question that has driven scholars of revolutionary America is whether the American Revolution was good for women. Read the following works about women’s education and experiences in the early republic: Linda Kerber’s Women of the Republic; Mary Beth Norton’s Liberty’s Daughters; and Margaret Nash's Women’s Education in the United States, 1780-1840. Write a short paper in which you make and support an argument how the Revolution contributed to changes in women's lives. Consider the possibilities that the Revolution opened for women and the limitations that remained. Make sure to consider your evaluation of the academy experience in making your argument.